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<h1 class="article-title">Israeli troops decimate Bedouin village in
Negev, leaving 24 children homeless</h1>
<div class="article-subtitledetails">
<span class="article-details"><span class="article-detail"><img
class="icon" src="cid:part1.00070208.01040000@freedomarchives.org"
alt="author"> Monday May 27, 2013 00:34</span><span
class="article-detail"><img class="icon"
src="cid:part2.03010305.01050502@freedomarchives.org" alt="author"> by
Celine Hagbard - IMEMC News</span></span><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.imemc.org/article/65559">http://www.imemc.org/article/65559</a><br>
</div>
<blockquote class="article-intro">The village of Atteer Um al-Hieran is
considered an 'unrecognized' village by the Israeli government, and has
experienced home demolitions in the past, in 2007. But this week,
residents say, 600 Israeli officers came and “destroyed everything”.</blockquote>
<p class="article">The village is home to around fifty people, half of
them children. All of the residents are now homeless, with no
accommodation made by the Israeli authorities who destroyed their homes.<br>
<br>
One 18-year old resident of the village, Nour Abu al-Qian, told
reporter Jillian Kestler D'Amours, “This time, they destroyed
everything.” According to a report by Kestler D'Amour in 'The
Electronic Intifada', Nour, who witnessed the demolition from beginning
to end, said residents had no time to take their belongings out of
their homes before the demolitions were carried out.<br>
<br>
Kestler D'Amours continues, “Nour now sleeps in a makeshift tent with
four of his siblings; inside the tent, thin mats and blankets were
piled on cinderblocks, gathering dust as the wind swept through the
village. 'It’s very difficult. But we will rebuild the houses. We will
remain here,' he said.”<br>
<br>
The Israeli government, since its creation in 1948, has refused to
recognize the Bedouin villages that have been in place in the Negev
desert for hundreds of years. Instead, the government has forcibly
transferred tens of thousands of indigenous Palestinian Bedouins into
government-run townships that are rife with poverty and disease, and
have few basic services. One of the most well-known of these townships
was constructed by the Israeli government adjacent to the city dump of
Jerusalem.<br>
<br>
According to Kestler D'Amours, “Some 200,000 Palestinian Bedouin
citizens of Israel live in the country’s southern Naqab (Negev) desert
region. Though they constitute approximately 30 percent of the area’s
total population, the Bedouin live on just five percent of the land.
Many have legal claims to their lands pending before Israeli courts.”<br>
<br>
The Israeli government recently approved a plan to forcibly remove the
remaining two dozen 'unrecognized villages' of Bedouins, along with a
plan for housing developments, businesses and shopping centers in place
of the villages. <br>
<br>
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated in January 2013, “The
goal of this historic decision is to put an end to the spread of
illegal building by Negev Bedouin and lead to the better integration of
the Bedouin into Israeli society. This brave decision will facilitate
the continued development and prosperity of the Negev, for the benefit
of all its residents.”<br>
<br>
But the residents of the so-called 'unrecognized villages' disagree
with the Prime Minister’s plan for their future, and have pleaded on
the Israeli government to allow them to remain in their homes. The plea
has fallen on deaf ears, however, as the demolition of villages
continues and Bedouin families like those living in Atir-Umm al-Hieran
continue to be made homeless. </p>
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